Gameplay Ideas
by finethoughts
Summary: These are just some ideas that I came up with that I think would make future persona better than before. Let me know what you think about them. I also know that these ideas may already be happening, which is fine I just wanted to post as many ideas as I could.
1. Chapter 1

**Gameplay Ideas**

 **Switchable Combat System:** One thing that I'd really like to see is an optional combat system; I believe it would help with the pacing of the dungeon crawling so the player wouldn't have to transition in and out of battle constantly when confronting a shadow. Also, this feature should be optional and should NOT be mindless and way too easy, the combat should be on the same quality as the devil may cry games, where it's fun and takes skill to master.

One way I'd like to see this executed is that the player to be able to switch between characters, and the characters should have their own unique style of fighting. _(Yosuke slashing with his Kunai knives, Naoto fighting with a blend of shooting and hand-to-hand combat, Kanji beating the hell out of everything, etc.)_ Something similar to dmc4se with all the characters having their own fighting style to make things awesome.

Another thing that should go with this feature is that the player should have an SP gauge to build up, and with the SP gauge you can activate one of two things. The first thing is to activate their persona in a similar way the Nero activates his devil trigger. The second thing is that the player can fully summon the character's persona and fight shadows with the persona's full abilities; while this happens, the character who is summoning the persona will automatically avoid danger so it wont be a pain to leave that person behind for a bit. One more thing that should the character should be able to mix in a few of their persona's skills with their own combat and it would use up a small amount of the SP gauge each time a skill is used, and the SP gauge would grow and be able to hold more SP as the game progresses.

This combat should also grant exp so the character(s) can still level up and the persona will gain new skills and abilities. As a side note, it could be fun of certain bosses have two parts where one part is in real time combat and the other part switches to the traditional turned based combat.

 **Better Designed Dungeons:** The persona 3 & 4 dungeons weren't horrible at all, but looking back on them I realize that they were very bare bones. It doesn't make them bad by any means, it just means that they should definitely have more depth and unique design in the future.

 **Make The Dungeons More Fun to Roam Around in:** The dungeons should be fun to roam around in at least the first time around so it doesn't feel like a chore; there should also be more than one way to get from point A to point B. Perhaps instead of going down a corridor all of time or taking stairs, there could be 2-3 more ways to get to your destination like you could go up and move above your enemies, you could go around them, go below them etc.

I also think that players should have an incentive to revisit dungeons for other things than exp. Like dungeons could have rare items that are unique to that location, maybe you could fight a boss again for fun, or there could be side quests for each dungeon.

 **More Save Points in Dungeons:** This would be so useful for keeping progress up to date or playing it safe you don't lose any good loot that you might not find again.

 **Add Stealth:** Stealth would be a great alternative way to get around in dungeons, rather than having to fight every shadow full on or run away; I would also like to see a stealth take-down system, you know the traditional get-behind-them-and-kill-them-before-they-notice-you thing, whether it be behind, above, or below them. That would serve as a kind of incentive to keep the stealth play up, so you wouldn't be forced to have full on battles to get rid of enemies; doing these take downs should also grant exp to the player, so the player doesn't get a reason to not try out the stealth.

 **Add mini games to do During the Day:** In persona 3 & 4 there wasn't a whole lot to do during the day, whether if it was after school or on your days off. I know it gave you the illusions of things to do like: Completing side quests for rewards or trying to finish up social links, and there was shopping. However, aside from those things there wasn't really anything to do _(Except go in the TV world in persona 4.)_ Like everything on this list, I don't want this to be rushed just to check off a list; I want it done right and have them be enjoyable.

I want these mini games to be beneficial as well. For example, these mini games should raise your stats like courage, knowledge, understanding etc. Or they can raise stats for your persona, or if there is a new stat system like Stamina, strength, endurance, etc. for the actual character and not the persona, then that would be another reason do these things. Another thing is that you should be able to take part in these activities with a partner and their stats can increase with yours.

 **Add More Things to do During Social Links:** The social links were very bare bones in my opinion; there's not a whole lot to them except for meeting up with the person and replying to their dialogue. I didn't hate the past social links, but I would like to see more to it. For example, I don't feel like I'm actually doing anything with that person when we're hanging out, it's more like a 15-30 second cut scene and then it says that you hung out for a little while longer or went home.

What I'd like to see is that you and that character party up and go around the city doing activities together and have talks together other while hanging out. I do realize that certain points in social links need to take place at a specific location like a restaurant, a store, a park, a house, etc. so I think that while you two are roaming around that there should be an objective marker to reach to activate that important social link event. Also, roaming around and doing activities with the person should help you get closer to ranking up that link, instead of having to spend a certain amount of boring cut scenes with them saying that you two hung out and may become closer soon.

One more thing is that the narrative/dialogue box should stop saying obvious stuff like: "You feel your relationship has grown deeper," "You feel and unbreakable bond with _," "You sense that something is bothering _," "You feel that your relationship is different now" etc. The player gets the point and having that bit of text personally takes away from the experience; and if the player doesn't know what's going on then the writing needs some editing. I believe that the player should build up how they personally feel about a character and not have it forced by saying that obvious stuff in the narrative box.

 **Add Some Free Roaming:** The game can benefit from having a bigger and better world to explore while you aren't clearing dungeons; players should also be able to control the camera while walking around so there's a sense of freedom while roaming the world. The player should feel like they're actually in a city or town with things to do other than completing a checklist; another thing is that the game shouldn't need to use that menu that connects the different spots in town different spots in the town/city. It feels limiting and those spots aren't that big anyway. now it shouldn't necessarily be gone, it should just be optional. I know that speed runners could benefit from that menu and fast traveling.

As a bonus, I would like to propose the idea of being able to skateboard, bike, or roller blades to get around faster in the world.

 **Be More Lenient With the Amount of Things To Do During The Day:** It was bothersome that you could only do one thing during the day and it would take up all of your time; I understand social links because hanging out with someone would actually take time. However, some things are just ridiculous like playing with that machine outside of the shiroku store, meeting up with the fox to tell him about the request, or going to the shrine to draw fortunes; like seriously, does it really take all day just to do one of those simple things that really only take a few minutes? I understand that its a video game and that not everything could be perfect, especially back then. However, since more powerful hardware is available that problem could be fixed; maybe there could be a timer that ticks during your free time, or you could be able to do 2 or 3 things instead of just one.

 **Be Able to Live a Nightlife:** There should also be things to do at night and not just during the day; especially if it isn't a school night.

there should be certain things that are open for you to do that you can't do during the day, like having certain social links exclusive to the night, having places that can only be accessed at night, be able to do illegal things, or even meet up with your group sometimes; there should also be side missions exclusive to night time.

 **Better Side Missions:** Instead of the dull fetching quests that we had before; we should have side missions that are actually fun to play. I honestly can't think of many examples, but almost anything would be a step up from a boring fetch quest.

 **Your decisions should truly matter:** I haven't finished persona 3, but I have finished persona 4 a few times and in the end I don't think the decisions were that important. I understand the "bad" endings, normal ending, and true ending. However, I feel like they were just a matter of choosing a dialogue option or making a simple decision in a certain time of the game or just not finishing a social link. The decisions that we make should truly have an effect on the story and how the characters feel about the main character, whether it be good or bad. And there should be plenty of decisions to make and not just a few; and if there are just a few they should really lead a story in a different direction and not just towards the end.

 **Let Us Choose Our Moral Standpoint:** It would be fun to not automatically be put in the role of a goody-two-shoes hero; I mean there's nothing wrong with being the hero, but I'd like be able to choose how I do things, who I side with, or how I use my powers. In the persona 5 trailer it gives off the vibe that we just might be able to have that freedom with our morality.

Also, the game should give good reasons why the player should choose the good or evil path; nothing like the: "Evil never pays off." kind of thing. And if the protagonist does get screwed over on being evil, it shouldn't be able to be seen coming from a mile away. I would also like to see a grey area with the morality and not just have it be a black or white thing.

 **Have the Option to Ditch School:** I know this is kind of silly, but it would be a good idea to be able to ditch; it could be used to advance a social link with someone that doesn't go to school, complete a job or side quest, or go to the shadow world if it's accessible during the day. It could also have a small impact on morality, and just be a good addition in general.

 **Be More emotionally Invested:** There game should give us a reason to get pissed off at a character and make a hasty decision in a critical part of the game, or have a reason to want to help somebody. The past two games did the story and character development really well and I would like to see those aspects improve in the future. I'm not saying that I want the game to be a huge emotional roller coaster, but there should enough to get the player invested with their own feelings.

 **Give the Main Character a Voice:** I didn't care for Narukami that much to me he was just a means to fight shadows or conveniently solve problems for everyone; I can't say the same for the P3 protagonist because I didn't finish to game.

Now back on topic, just simply grunting or yelling during battle doesn't count as having a voice in my book; Narukami really shinned as a character in the anime, but in the game he was just an empty vessel to me. and I'm not saying that he or the other protagonist are bad characters; I really like them, but I just want the future protagonist(s) to have a personality and sense of identity and I think a voice would really add to that.

I know that giving a usually silent protagonist a voice is going to be new to a lot of people, and might even annoy some others; however, if it is done right then it would be an awesome change for the protagonist(s), at least I think so.


	2. Chapter 2

**Give the Main Character a Personality:** This is probably a part two to the last thing, but bear with me. It would be great to see the protagonist do things like talk and laugh with his friends and not just speak when someone asks him a question or realizes that he haven't talked yet; it would also be nice to see the protagonist's point of view on the events unfolding around him and not just everyone else's thoughts and opinions. The protagonist's reactions and thoughts should also vary with the choices that the player makes throughout the game.

 **Have Character Customization:** It would be a breath of fresh air to get the option to customize the protagonist; I don't mean for it do be in deep detail like skyrim or saint's row. I'm thinking more along the lines of GTA 5 because it would be nice to change your character's clothes, shoes, and maybe change his hair style; plus his accessories like glasses, watches, masks _(for the dungeon and thievery),_ backpacks, etc.

 **Have the option to play as a female protagonist:** This would be awesome if it happened; adding the option to play as a female protagonist adds more potential gameplay and replayability value. It would be cool to see how the story would unfold in a woman's point of view like in persona 3 portable.

 **Add Diverse Dialogue Options:** Now what I mean by this is that I'd like to see more than two or thee things to say during dialogue and make them have their own unique style. For example, you could have to option to say something funny/ironic, serious/angry, neutral/normal, or sad/helpless, and just in general be able to say what you want to say.

 **Keep Shadow Selves:** It shouldn't exactly be executed in the same way it was in P4, but seeing character's shadows would definitely add to the future persona(s); it would seriously help with character development. And it would just be a nice addition in general to the overall story. The shadow versions of people shouldn't show up right away, it would be better to see their initial personalities for some time in the game and then have their shadow versions come out later on. _(unlike how shadow selves came out almost right away in P4)_

 **Have shadow selves take over a character:** Allow me to explain, instead of fighting someone's evil self like in P4 it would be cool if a shadow takes over a character's thought and emotions and they lash out at their friends. During these boss fights the character wouldn't really turn into a monster, but fight back with their shadow strength and use an evil version of their persona.

 **Add More School Life to The Gameplay:** It'd be fun to test out our knowledge or learn new things in the game, something about school in video games just really catch my interest; it would be fun to see something similar to bully, the game shouldn't be a school simulator like it, but there should be more to do within the school hours of the game.

 **Add a Nice Variety of Music:** The music for battles should change every now and then so it doesn't become repetitive; there should also be an option to have an mp3 player and buy soundtracks so they can be played over the default songs. And of course there should be a variety of music for all parts of the game and not just battles, but not have there be so many tracks or have them change so often that we don't get to enjoy it.

 **Be Able to Choose The Support Character:** Fuuka and Rise were amazing characters in the game and there was nothing wrong with them. However, this time around it would be a nice addition to allow other characters to gather info during battles and not have it restricted to just one person; and I've noticed that the support characters have mostly been girls. I'd like to hear a guy give support every now and then; here's my solution: When the player has their party chosen, allow them to pick someone among the characters left behind to be the support.

 **Make The Initial Persona Useful:** It was a bit bothersome that the protagonist's original persona becomes useless after the first dungeon; I want to see the initial persona gain new skills and become stronger, but it should still have a weakness and not have certain moves/elements so it's not over powered, but at the same time it wont be tossed off to the side. The persona for the protagonist in P5 looks absolutely bad ass and I'd hate to see it go to waste.

We should also keep the mechanic of fusing an OP version of the initial persona later on or after the game in newgame plus, so we can still make the initial persona even more awesome and powerful than it was before.

 **Give The Protagonist an Official Name:** Doing this would contribute greatly to the story and would give the protagonist an even bigger sense of identity, instead of being an empty shell to get errands done for the game. Plus, trying to come up with a good name is a pain sometimes, especially when you figure out their official name later on in an anime or something; anyway this would help to get things rolling faster.

 **Don't Make the Intro So Long:** In P4 the intro took forever to get over with and hand finally the controls over to the player. The P4 intro is actually fun to see at first, but after finishing the game once or twice it becomes tempting to just hit the skip button until it's over. The game should give players a tutorial that doesn't drag on, and it should be done in a way that allows the player to explore and learn the mechanics on their own without becoming confused and lost on how the game works.

 **Bring Back Combined Persona Attacks:** The combined skills were fun to use and it should be brought back; this would give the player incentive to collect more personas. Another good thing that comes from it is that some of the skills will actually be a huge help during battles and would make the player do a little more preparation before running into tough enemies or boss battles.

 **Violence Outside of the Shadow World:** I'm not exactly sure how I'd like to see this executed, but I'd love to see some kind of violence in the real world. Whether it be fighting bullies/thugs, competing in a match for a club/hobby, or sparing to improve stats and tactics.

 **Persona Weapon/Armor Fusion:** This feature should come back into the game it will give more incentive to collect personas and level them up, and would make it a little more challenging to keep up with having useful equipment throughout the game. Unlike in P4 where you just needed enough money to buy the best gear.

 **Allow The Protagonist to Use a variety of Weapons:** It felt restricting in P4 to only be allowed to use a sword, I realize it could be compensated for by using direct commands to control party members, but it doesn't quite quench that thirst. The main character should be able to use different kinds of weapons rather than being focused on using only one kind; it also adds a little to the customization aspect I mentioned earlier.

 **More Weaknesses:** Characters should initially have more than one weakness to put the player on their guard and try to make them play more strategically. This isn't something that should last throughout the entire game of course, that would get annoying; so as a solution when the party members level up, they become more resistant to their weaknesses ( _Take less damage from their weakness from each level they gain)_ until that weakness goes away entirely; and then they'd only have to worry about one weakness.

Maybe this shouldn't be the case with characters that will be picked up later on in the game, but rather just the initial characters that you start off with, and their weaknesses shouldn't stick around for too long because it would just give the player a reason to use the other characters, but it shouldn't go away so quickly that it takes the challenge out of the game; maybe it should vary on the difficulty setting.

 **Persuasion:** The skills that effect the opponents by making them angry, scared, charmed, etc. are pretty useless and are a waste of space for skills. I don't hate the skills where it raises or lowers stats like hit/evasion, defense, attack, etc. Just those ones that work with emotions. In my experience they hardly ever hit, are hardly ever used, and I'd rather focus on actual combat like dealing damage and protecting my party members rather than using those charming, anger, fear skills that will likely just be a waste of a turn; I'd rather take a chance with a light or dark attack.

My solution to this is to add persuasion when you encounter an enemy; you get a chance to talk to them and choose whether to make them angry, scared, charmed etc. before battle so you can add those stat defects right away. Of course I think the stat defects should only last for about 3 turns or so, and that it should be more difficult to pull off in the beginning of the game; the protagonist should have certain stats to level up to make his/her persuasion work better or more often. Also, the characters should have certain specialties with certain persuasion like one person is good at making enemies angry, one is good at scaring them, one is good at charming etc. and as they level up they get better and better at it while picking up different types of persuasion.

 **Add Character Development in the Main Story Arc:** Even though there was some degree character development within the main story in P4, the real development behind a character was in their social links. which was a good addition to not burden the main story, but the drawback is that the game relied on them in a way that certain characters didn't really get to shine in the main story; Especially the quiet ones like Naoto. It would also be nice to see characters acknowledge your relationships with them outside of their social links and even in the main story.

 **Make Social Links More Beneficial/Rewarding:** The only things that you could gain from social links were, being able to fuse a persona with more power when you create it, learn more about the character you're spending time with, or evolving their persona -which is really cool BTW- however, social links can get old if you complete it once or twice. So what I want to see is social links offering more than just those few benefits, take GTA4 for example.

In GTA 4 if you spend enough time with your friends successfully, they can make it worth your while. For example, a certain character can sell you certain items that you can't get anywhere else and at a good price, a character can offer services like reinforcing your weapons, armor, or can sell you new gear altogether, a character can train you can make you more effective for combat, or a character can teach you how to have more charm, higher a certain stat etc.

 **Different All Out Attack Animations:** It would be a nice touch to add more than one all out attack; from what I've seen from the P5 trailer that seems to be the case, so that's a good sign. However, I'd like to see more than one animation just to keep things fresh and to make it interesting to watch. Perhaps, as you progress in the story or as you level up the animations change, or you get the option to change the animations as you progress, maybe before hand in a menu.

 **Button Mash For All Out Attacks:** All out attacks are when the player and their party is supposed to do the most damage to enemies; perhaps, to add to that little bit of tension or sensation you button mash during the all out attacks to deal additional damage.

 **Full Release During Combat:** There should be a mechanic similar to Aigis's where you go to the tactics and activate your full power for a short while in battle. It can be used as a last resort for bosses, or if you're just feeling frustrated and want to deal some additional damage in general; there should also be a little cool down period for it, or maybe there can be an item that reduces the cool down time or even gets rid of it altogether.

 **Do More Than One Attack With Weapons:** Similar to P3 where you sometimes hit your enemy more than once is what I want to see. It gets boring to see the characters only do one attack and it makes me feel like they're not using their full physical potential. I want to have this brought back in a bigger and better way; seeing characters use their weapon a little bit more gives off the feeling that they are actually fighting with all they've got.

 **Have the characters go between calm and aggressive:** It would be a good addition to see the characters get angry and aggressive sometimes when they fight, like when a fight drags on for too long, they're fighting a shadow stronger than them, or during boss fights. And then have them be calm and cocky during lesser fights. It would be nice to see characters change their attitudes from time-to-time.

 **Make the combat more engaging:** The combat should require a little bit more skill to master in some way; one I can come up with is to have something added to the traditional combat to make it a little bit closer to real time fighting like maybe the enemy wont wait an entire turn for you to decide what skills or attacks you want to use, putting more pressure on the player. Also depending on the difficulty and level of the enemy could decide how fast an enemy reacts.

 **Add more elements:** Must I say more? More elements would make the combat fresh and there would be more to learn about the game in general so not all the needed knowledge can just be carried on from the past games.

 **Bring back tired/sick conditions:** It would be a nice challenge to monitor your character's health in the real world, similar in P3 with a few more factors built into aside from sleep and the amount of time spent in the shadow world. It would be fun to have in order to have to be more prepared before going into the shadow world. Also if this is added back then there would be a reason to pace yourself in the shadow world rather than just trying to clear out a dungeon in one or two days.

As a bonus I'd like to propose the idea of having energy snacks or energy drinks that can be consumed to temporarily get rid of the tired stat of the character hasn't given himself enough rest.

 **Fight enemy persona users:** Fighting other person users would be awesome for boss battles and could be implemented within the story. I'd also like to fight more than one; not all bosses should be monsters; other people may use their power for personal gain.


End file.
